


Skin and Scales

by KalicoFox



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, Freeform, Gen, Giant freaking spiders, Lamia!Dave, M/M, Mythology - Freeform, Snakes, Unusual uses of spider silk, Vriska has more reason than most to be traumatized by spiders, flying snakes, unusual diets
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-18 03:46:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9366644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KalicoFox/pseuds/KalicoFox
Summary: Tumblr prompt- An unexpected transformation is, well, unexpected.What could possibly be more unexpected than waking up a different species than you went to bed as? Dave can't really think of anything, and the fact that Karkat keeps accusing him of hiding a human pupal stage isn't really all that helpful!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was based on a tumblr prompt, so I don't know how long I'm going to be able to work on it. Still, I'm currently writing chapter three, so we'll see.

 

Waking up to Karkat staring at him wasn’t anything new. They’d been together for months now, and sleeping together helped keep nightmares at bay whenever the meteor passed through another dream bubble, and honestly, Karkat probably woke up to Dave staring at him just as often. Seeing concern in his grey eyes and teeth worrying at his lower lip was new, though, and Dave shoved himself up into a sitting position, scrubbing sleep out of his eyes.

“Dave.” Karkat said seriously, “I need to know. Do humans have a pupal stage that you’ve been hiding?”

Dave frowned, shaking his head as if to try and make sense of what Karkat had said.  
“No?” Wait, that sounded too much like a question. “No, dude. Humans don’t pupate. We just get bigger. Why? What brought that on? Did we go through a weird dream bubble with mutant humans that did pupate? Did I fucking miss the pupation bubble? Shit, I’ll bet Rose-”

“Dave, shut up!” Karkat snapped, clapping one hand over Dave’s mouth and leaning in so that the two of them were nose to nose. “Now, I want you to listen to me very fucking closely; Do. Not. Panic. There will be no panicking at all, whatsoever. We’ll figure this out, and we’ll get you back to normal, I swear, okay, so whatever you fucking do, do not panic.”

Dave nodded, prying Karkat’s hand off his mouth. “Gotcha, no panicking allowed, sure. Great, awesome. Just one question.”

“What?”

“What am I not supposed to be panicking over?”

Face grim, Karkat reached down, pulled the blankets off of Dave’s lower half, and tapped one yellow claw on Dave’s upper thigh.

“This.”

Dave stared.

_“What the buttfucking christ!?”_

Dave no longer had an upper thigh.

Actually, it would be more correct to say that Dave no longer had legs, though the portion directly below his hips did sort of resemble a thigh, if he squinted.  
What he did have was a long, sinuous, white scaled tail, which as he watched, curled closer, the tip automatically twining around Karkat’s leg like it was trying to keep him from going anywhere.

“It’s a tail.” Karkat said, oddly calm as he stroked the possessive bit of tail, and Dave slanted a dirty look at him, his eyes narrow.

“Thanks Karkles, I never would have fucking guessed that. Here’s a question for you that you could maybe apply all that genius toward answering; _where the fuck did it come from?!”_

“I don’t fucking know,” Karkat bristled, “but hey, here’s a thought, why don’t we ask your weird ass ectobiological mammal ‘sibling’, who, as the only person on this miserable, taintchafing rock who has even a passing acquaintance with 'magic’, might be better equipped to answer that sort of question?”

Dave tensed, inhaling sharply to retort, then, abruptly, he deflated, leaning forward to plop his forehead against Karkat’s shoulder.

“Yeah, okay. 'Msorry.”

Sighing heavily, Karkat smoothed his hand down Dave’s bare back, tracing the line of his spine with gentle claws and marveling at the way skin smoothly transitioned to scales.

“Your spine keeps going.” He said idly, and Dave twitched, the scales shifting minutely under Karkat’s careful claws until a hand caught his wrist and held it in place.

“That really fuckin’ tickles.” Dave grumbled, and Karkat winced.

“Fuck, sorry.”

“'Sfine. Just… can we go find Rose now? This is fucking weird.”

“Yeah, okay.”

Getting Dave out of bed took some careful doing, and despite the fact that he obviously couldn’t wear pants, Dave insisted on wrapping his cloak around him in such a way that it managed to conceal the patch of scales where his crotch had been. This, of course, made moving even harder, and he ended up having to half-drape himself over Karkat’s shoulders to stay upright.

“Be gentle with me, man, I don’t even know how I’m gonna make it down all those godawful stairs, and will all this fuckin’ tail even fit into the transportalizer? Fuck, what if half of it gets cut off, will I end up going back to normal with like, three toes missing? Or half a leg? Dude, I’d be pretty badass with a peg leg, right, or maybe some sort of robo-leg or so-”

“Dave.” Karkat interrupted, his voice strained, and Dave fell silent.

“Yeah?"

"Shut. The fuck. Up.”

“Sure thing, babe.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter illustrated by the ever wonderful VanillaCorpse. Check them out on tumblr people, 'cause they are straight up awesome.

Somehow, they made it to the ‘kitchen’; a room that had an alchemized stove, refrigerator, and whatever food they’d alchemized scattered haphazardly around on every free surface. Rose and Kanaya were usually either in there, or in the 'den’, a room that was part office, part communal gathering area, and part whatever the hell else people wanted to use it for.

Still, the 'den’ was another two transportalizers away, and even though Dave had figured out how to propel himself forward with his tail, staying as upright as he was used to just wasn’t possible without Karkat’s support. Karkat wasn’t going to say anything about it, but Dave could feel him starting to flag under his weight.

Unfortunately, neither snarky broad was in residence. Even more unfortunately one blind, shark like, absolutely terrifying, legal-type troll was.

“Well!” Terezi grinned, sniffing the air hungrily, “I didn’t think it was possible, but Karkat, you may have just become my new favorite! How did you alchemize slitherbeast?”

“Hold up there, oh mighty legislacerator,” Dave said, stiffening slightly, “You’re missing one hell of a 'hold the fuck up’. Get a better nostril gander at this.”

Terezi frowns, sniffs again, and tilts her head like a hunting dog, listening to the soft scrape of scales against metal flooring.

“Well well, Mr. Cool Kid,” she said musingly, one hand tapping her cane rhythmically on the floor, “Something you wanted to share with the class?”

“Dave turned into a half slitherbeast last night in his sleep.” Karkat said bluntly, his fingers digging into the scales at Dave’s hip where he’d wrapped his arm around to give him some more support. “Where’s Rose.”

Terezi stalked closer, leaning over Dave’s shoulder and inhaling hard through her nose as though she thought she might pick up some trace of the scent of whatever had done this to him. Humming thoughtfully, she frowned then licked a huge stripe up his cheek and skipped backwards a step, out of range of his automatic retaliatory swipe, smacking her lips thoughtfully.

“They’re in Kanaya’s workroom,” She said absently, licking her lips again before grinning widely, “And you, Cool Kid, taste delicious.”

“Aaaand we’re done here.” Dave said quickly, “Gotta make sure all of me is still attached so Rose can fix whatever fuckery is going on."

Oddly enough, the threat of being eaten by a troll with a serious oral fixation did seem to help him move a little easier. It was like he was so focused on getting away that the mechanics of how didn’t even occur to him.

At least until he made it to the stairs and realized that he’d left Karkat behind halfway down the hallway.

"Huh.” Dave said, looking down at himself, “That’s new.”

“Which bit,” Karkat said drily, “the remembering that you, as one of the three god tiers on this miserable fucking rock, can fly? Or the bit where you suddenly got whatever stick was up your ass out and started moving your own feculent shithole for yourself?”

“Mostly the flying.” Dave admitted, twisting around so that he could look back along his tail. “Hey, how long do you think that is, anyway?”

Karkat shrugged, idly stroking one coil that had come up to rest possessively around his shoulders.

“Based on the rediculous system of measurement that you underevolved monkey things came up with? Or something that actually makes sense?” He asked, and Dave pulled down his sunglasses just so he could be sure that Karkat saw him rolling his eyes.

“Oh please, Senpai, sing me the song of my people.”

Karkat shrugged again. “Twenty, twenty-five feet? Fuck if I know though, your systems of measurement are stupid as shit.”

“Huh.” Dave doubled back, floating above the tail and examining it with a critical eye before forcing it straight and eyeing it contemplatively. “Nah, that looks about right. Cool.”

As soon as he stopped paying attention to it, the coil was back around Karkat’s shoulders, and whatever wasn’t touching him was undulating slightly, almost like kelp in water.

“So, let’s go find the wicked witch of the west and her pet vampire, and get my ass back where it belongs.”


End file.
